Tag Archives: economy

The UK government wants the UK to be the technology centre for Europe this year. But to achieve this, they will have to look at every part of their economy. One area that is being closely looked at lately is our cities. To drive growth, cities need to be more connected. These highly connected cities need to be driven by super-fast connectivity and they can help drive the British innovation over the next few years.

But if the UK wants highly connected cities in the future, they need to start planning things now. And they already have been thinking about this. An example is the Intel Collaborative Research Institute (ICRI) for Sustainable Connected Cities. ICRI is a joint effort between two of London’s top universities: University College and Imperial College London.

Social, economic and environmental challenges need to be tackled and it’s up to this new institute to investigate how technologies can help tackle these issues. They want London to become a ‘smart city lab’ and they want to create a blueprint for ‘connected cities’ in the UK.

So the researchers of this new institute will investigate some of the new intelligent technologies to use on our cities. An example is the network of sensors that can be used to quickly access data on trends for traffic, pollution and water supply. If they have all this data, they can analyze it to see how well the city is operating. Norway already has a centralized data platform like this called ‘CityData’.

A real-life application of this can be the traffic monitoring. Traffic congestions can be monitored and analyzed to develop smart transport timetabled and alerts. Councils could start to target areas to send more wardens, re-route traffic or provide warnings on mobile apps.

But this can only work when you have a huge amount of data at hand. So the right tools and bandwidth need to be in place first before you can start capturing and carrying these high volumes of information. When the connectivity isn’t restricted to just big businesses but to all of the city, innovation and growth can be stimulated and can flourish.

So using data more wisely is a very good new innovative approach to cities. London is already embracing this with as an example the London Gird for Learning (LGFL). All 33 London local authorities are involved in LGFL, and it’s making the most out of a dedicated public services network. It’s already providing schools with new technologies like e-learning tools such as video conferencing, virtual learning platforms and podcasts.

By 2050, there will be about nine billion people on this world, and most of them will be living in urban spaces. If cities don’t prepare systems to manage every aspect of the way a city operates, they will be challenged in all sorts of ways. So cities need to start investing today in forward-thinking research and super-fast connectivity that will make the ‘connected cities’ reality.

The smart cities idea is a massive initiative, covering all aspects of business and life with aim of changing our world for the better. Details of Liverpool’s ambition to becoming the UK’s first smart city were underlined by the city leaders, alongside the heads of business, industry and technology experts.

Six main areas are used to identify smart cities, that of: economy; mobility; environment; people; living and governance. Each of these areas include a wide range of needs that must be met in order to help communities grow and reduce strain on resources. Urban populations are fast growing, placing greater pressure on cities infrastructures which were not designed to service as many people as they are doing. Conversion to a smart city goes a long way in solving this complicated problem.

Speaking at the debate in Liverpool Town hall last week, Mike Parker, the Chairman of Liverpool Vision and Liverpool’s Smart City board had this to say:

“Future investment will flow into those cities that can demonstrate they have an innovative, green, adaptive infrastructure and this is why we want to become, a Smart City.

“Like our competitor cities Liverpool faces many economic, social and technological challenges but we are in a remarkably good position to meet them.

“Our ambition is matched by our determination and our enterprise is matched by our creativity.

“We have an elected Mayor on the Prime Minister’s mayoral cabinet who works closely with Liverpool Vision, an organisation configured for partnership and it is the strength of our relationships with the private sector, the universities, Homes and Communities Agency and other agencies that has enabled us to transform the city and raise our ambition and will continue to do so in the future.”

Concluding Parker’s words came a statement from Joe Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool:

“Ultimately, Smart City is about jobs and it is about economic growth and creating a better future and they are my main priorities as Mayor.”

It would seem that all of Liverpool’s major players in both politics and business are on board with the smart city idea. What we now need to see is how quickly Liverpool can become such a city.

Our vision is to enable Liverpool to become the first Smart City in the UK creating ongoing monitoring of resource deployment, insightful visualizations and constant feedback loops to develop a highly efficient, interactive and engaging city stimulating behavioral change.